DISASTER RECOVERY: PROJECT ASSESSMENT & HURRICANE KATRINA

Posted June 26, 2006

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Walton Construction, an ENR Top 100 Contractor based in Kansas City, had several projects impacted by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast. OxBlue webcams helped Walton’s executive team and regional managers assess the damage during and after the storm – and get a jump start on recovery efforts.

“We gained enormous benefit from having the OxBlue cams. We were able to review conditions on multiple projects during the weekend before Katrina made landfall. And we were well informed on Monday morning to ask the right questions of the team assembled to provide logistic and financial support to our projects teams.” — John Martin, CEO, Walton Construction

The webcam system was particularly helpful on the high-rise Harrah’s Hotel project in downtown New Orleans. After the levee breach the day after Katrina, New Orleans was completely shut down and the Harrah’s site would be inaccessible for at least several days.

“As conditions escalated into near anarchy in New Orleans, we were able to review site conditions on a continuing basis. Miraculously, what we saw on CNN and what we saw on our webcam were not the same – our project remained unaffected by the mayhem that ensued.” —John Martin, CEO, Walton Construction

This knowledge allowed Walton executives to focus efforts on other projects impacted in the region. While many job sites remained shut down and inaccessible, webcam images from those sites continued to provide crucial tactical information.

“We could begin making informed decision on where to focus our attention and project teams. Without the webcams, we would have simply had to wait and see.” —John Martin, CEO, Walton Construction